Thursday, July 31, 2014

Summer is awfully unusual this year, I still don't have a proper sun tan. Late afternoon thunderstorm has darkened up my beautiful - otherwise light-filled - studio. I became sad, and I had put my brush down. Painting was done for the day.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Opening the door of the kiln is always something I anticipate with great enthusiasm. Sometimes the surprise quickly develops into a shock-like state, and I find that right before an event my whole entire load of work (previously ordered and payed for) can be tossed into the garbage because my thermo setter decided to give the firing a little kick of its own. Such things happen rarely, but they do happen at times. Breathing in and then calmly starting all over again is the best way to handle such dreadful situations, that much I have learned over the years. And there are other times, luckily the more frequent ones, when I am dancing my way to and from the kiln and my shelves as I unload my fired and finished work. I love the element of surprise, that tiny little something that makes the results partly unpredictable....

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Flower pots for "selfish" reasons...
I rarely get to make anything for myself and when I realized I didn't have any pots (of my own) to plant my larger succulents in, I knew, this had to change. Red clay is rarely something that I work with, I prefer the lighter colors and finer textures for most of my jewelry-work and everyday objects, but hand-built flower pots, well, they look best in unglazed red. The organic sturdy feel and the uneven lines fit so well with the perfect and systematically beautiful look of my succulents. Such balance suits my taste...

Sometime during the following week, when all of the wares I made yesterday will have dried out completely, I will load them into the kiln and bisque fire them. Then off to plant my lovelies. Cannot wait to show you the final result.

There is something so meditative about hand building... your hands are soaked in thick clay as you perfect the shape of the pots in repetitive moves...Absolutely magical. And this type of clay is amazing to work with, made especially for throwing, so its flexibility is like none other clay's I've worked with so far.

As I was working on these, a thought came to me and it won't leave my mind even days after. I might organize some clay workshops for children... It would be so nice, don't you think? I have held courses a number of times in kindergartens and summer camps, but I have never actually organized one, I was merely guest tutoring. Are there any mothers out there reading this post? What are your thoughts on this? Would children be interested in learning about pottery and digging their little hands into this wonderful "mud"? ;)

Sunday, July 20, 2014

If you don't follow me on Facebook just yet, then you might have been left out of all the fun :) And you probably missed the awesome news about my latest earring shop update too. I need to start learning how to make online lookbooks, it would be so nice to gather new collections in that way and publish it before the actual release of a collection... Something to keep in mind for next time. And until then, here is a little teaser (for more, head over to Jasmin Blanc on Etsy).

Saturday, July 19, 2014

It has been a while since I posted anything on this space. Life hasn't been much on the sunny side lately, so I neglected writing, silence felt better, that's all. But one step at a time, one can get far, and that is my pace right now, which is fine. Time heals and helps. So they say.

Some days I can't even believe we turned our calendars to July, and we summed up half of it already. I haven't even had the chance to get a tan just yet. Something is terribly wrong with that, I'm telling you. Rain, thunderstorms and wet grass, this pretty much sums up this past week and also my mood. But luckily none of that had any kind of negative influence on my work, and I was able to make great progresses in the studio. And so it is only fair that I tease you a little by saying, that I have lots of exciting news to share...soon... But until then here's a glimpse into my moody days.

♥ Jasmin Blanc ♥

♥ Le Petit Knit ♥

Mailing list

** Photo and text content on this blog is my personal possession, unless stated otherwise. If you'd like to use any of the images please be kind and link back to my blog, giving credit to whom it belongs.